Displaying items by tag: Capacity

India: Aditya Birla subsidiary UltraTech Cement said that it will spend US$200m in capital expenditure (CAPEX) during the 2021 financial year, which ends on 31 March 2021. The plans consist of a capacity expansion to 118Mt/yr from 115Mt/yr, including the completion of the 4.0Mt/yr Bara grinding plant in Uttar Pradesh and 1.2Mt/yr-worth of brownfield projects in Bihar and West Bengal. Solar and wind power capacity will increase to 350MW from 95MW, while waste heat recovery (WHR) capacity will increase to 185MW from 118MW.

Chair Kumar Birla said, “While 2021 will be a challenging year, Birla remains confident that the economy will revert to the 6 - 8% growth trajectory in 2022.”

India: JSW Group has delayed the initial public offering for its subsidiary JSW Cement to 2022 from December 2020 due to lack of demand for cement. Mint News has reported that the company will increase its cement production capacity during the intervening period by 43% to 20Mt/yr from 14Mt/yr.

Managing director Parth Jindal said, “A second consecutive year of decline in cement demand has delayed our expansion plans.” He added, "We will restart capital expenditure projects worth US$160m in October 2020. We're adding 1.5Mt/yr of integrated capacity and 3.0Mt/yr of grinding capacity."

JSW Cement’s cement production fell by 30% year-on-year in the three months that ended on 30 June 2020.

India: JSW Cement has said that it will delay a planned US$382m expansion of its installed capacity of 14Mt/yr to 25Mt/yr in 2023 until at least January 2021. The Business Standard newspaper has reported that JSW Cement previously postponed work to raise its capacity to 20Mt/yr in 2020, and that the economic situation following the coronavirus lockdown is “not conducive to the construction agenda.” JSW Cement chief executive officer (CEO) Nilesh Narwekar said, “The plans are being deferred by 6 – 12 months but we are not sure that they will happen.” Financing for the work was due to be split 50:50 between internal accruals and bank loans.

Hungary: Italy-based Entsorga has completed the installation of an automated alternative fuel (AF) line at a Hungarian cement plant.The upgrade consists of an Entsorga Spider crane and Pelican power system which will be able to maintain a continuous feed to the plant’s calcination system 24 hours a day.

Entsorga CEO Francesco Galanzino said, “Bringing a commission to a successful conclusion in the middle of the maximum intensity period of the coronavirus crisis has been a great satisfaction. The cement plant will make significant savings in CO₂ emissions.”

India: ACC Cement has awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for work on its upcoming 1.0Mt/yr integrated Ametha plant in Kathnl, Madhya Pradesh to Larsen & Toubro. The Press Trust of India has reported that the 9500t/day cement plant will have a clinker capacity of 3.0Mt/yr. The value of the contract is reportedly US$131m.

Tajikistan: Tajik cement producers achieved volumes of 564,000t in January-February 2020, up by 20% from 469,000t in the first two months of 2019. This corresponds to capacity utilisation by the country’s 13 producers (total capacity 4.7Mt/yr) of 72% so far in 2020.

Europe: Australia-based Calix has announced that construction will begin on its second low emissions intensity lime and cement (Leilac) carbon capture and storage (CCS) installation at a ‘European cement plant’ on 7 April 2020. ASX ComNews has reported that collaborators on the project, which has received Euro16m under the EU’s Horizon 2020 grant scheme, are Portugal-based Cimpor, Germany-based HeidelbergCement, Germany and France-based energy companies Ingenieurbüro-Kühlerbau-Neustadt (IKN) and Engie and Belgium-based minerals and lime company Lhoist. Calix has said that the 100,000t/yr process emissions capture facility will be operational in late 2024.
The company has appointed Emma Bowring Leilac-2 project leader.

The first Leilac installation was completed at HeidelbergCement’s 1.5Mt/yr integrated Lixhe plant in Belgium’s Limburg province in mid-2019.

India: Dalmia Bharat has suspended operations across its entire integrated cement production apparatus, equalling 26.5Mt/yr capacity, as of 26 March 2020. The move is a response to a government ordnance of 25 March 2020 imposing a 21-day lockdown on the whole of India due to the coronavirus. The company will implement the closure ‘until further notice,’ according to Mint News.

Dalmia Bharat CEO and managing director Mahendra Singhi said, “While cement production is continuous in nature and the plants have requisite permission from both the state and the central governments to operate with minimum employees during the lockdown, Dalmia Bharat will only carry out mandatory activities required for safety and security of the plants in the larger interest of its staff.”

Coronavirus had claimed 13 lives in India on 27 March 2020.

Azerbaijan: Akkord Cement has indicated that it plans to produce 1.6Mt of cement and clinker at its Gazakh plant in Dash Salahli in 2020. This would represent a 33% year-on-year increase from 1.2Mt in 2019. In 2019, Akkord Cement exported 500t of clinker from the plant to Georgia. Trend News has reported that the company intends to also export clinker to Iran in 2020.

Zimbabwe: Work has begun on a 43,000t/yr dry mortar production line at Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe’s 0.5Mt/yr Manresa plant in Harare. The plant, supplied by Turkey-based Varlik Industries, will increase the company’s mortar production capacity by 710% to 50,000t/yr from 7000t/yr. Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe chair Kumbirai Katsande said “The expansion project is three-pronged and will include doubling of cement capacity and tripling agricultural lime capacity as well as automation of the dry mortars plant.”